Audio-Visual Film Essay

Social & Rhetorical Function

Audio-visual film essays, more commonly known as “film video essays,” are film-criticism videos that edit and combine images and sounds from preexisting media with the goal of generating a deeper understanding of elements of film. Audio-visual film essays achieve this goal by using textual commentary and curated clips or stand-alone curated clips. They use rhetorical tools such as providing evidence (the clips), as well as borrow from long-standing video production techniques. 1

Although audio-visual essays are a large genre with videos ranging from multiple topics, such as videos explaining a political crisis or video essays about novels, the audio-visual film essay is a subset genre that has its own conventions apart from the overarching video essay genre.

Studying film through its subject, style, and story reveals truths of current or past historical circumstances, in turn reflecting societal conventions and issues. This aspect is of great importance to filmmakers who are often encouraged to “break open the form,” as well as members of society looking to understand more not only about film but about the world they experience. Audio-visual essays have become increasingly popular as forms of media become shorter in length, rendering in-depth analyses on a day-to-day basis uncommon.2

Audio-visual film essays take advantage of the media type’s affordances; written essays about film do not allow for the capturing of visual nuances.3 In the audio-visual format, the viewer gathers all relevant information quickly, as opposed to the written essayist that would have to convincingly illustrate each nuance. Audio-visual film essays approach the topic in different styles of execution depending on what best will respond to the rhetorical situation and social function of providing or generating insight.

History & Development

Filmmakers have long been cutting and re-appropriating images from film in order to make a specific argument or point rooted in larger societal themes. One of the first examples of an audio-visual film essay can be dated back to 1936 when Joseph Cornell released Rose Hobart, a surrealist collage with clips cut from East of Borneo (1931) and documentary footage of an eclipse.4 However, the mode of viewing and complicated production separates it from the nature of audio-visual film essays regarded today.

With the advent of technological advances, the audio-visual film essay grew in popularity. Film was not so easily accessible before, leaving many to only experience it live in theaters. According to Cristina Álvarez López & Adrian Martin in the 2014 journal Introduction to the audiovisual essay: A child of two mothers, the creation of VHS tapes in the 1970s made film more accessible to willing commentators. Previously, filmmakers had to scour studio dumpster bins to find thrown-out film. 5 With the ability to pause and play tapes, frame-by-frame analysis was made possible, allowing for the analysis of “nuances of facial expression, degrees of movement, or interplay of light and shadow,” as explained by Julia Vassilieva in the 2016 Explainer: the exciting new genre of the audio-visual film essay.6 Later, the introduction of streaming services, which have further altered the way that people access film and TV, allowed for an even quicker retrieval with its digitization.7

The introduction of widely accessible editing software and video hosting platforms also contributed to the genre’s popularity as more people have the means to produce. While filmmakers previously had to manually splice together film, its digitization also coalesced with the digitization of editing software. Editing software allowed creators to separate clips non-linearly, resulting in the stylistic elements of the video essay today. 8 Additionally, the creation of Youtube in 2005 and Vimeo in 2004 allowed users to post whatever they please on these platforms. 9

The invention of a genre also comes with strides to analyze the theoretical and instrumental practices of such genre, to the extent that some scholars such as Catherine Grant are considering it a new scholarly form of analysis. In 2013, the event Audiovisual Essay: Practice and Theory International Workshop was hosted in Frankfurt, Germany to discuss the new dimensions that audio-visual essays add to film and academia in general. 10

With the advent of streaming platforms, however, comes the ongoing debate of ownership within the film community, particularly in terms of what defines “fair use,” coinciding with the debate about the academic validity of audio-visual essays.11 There are also discussions regarding whether or not this genre disrespects the original work’s cohesion as more and more essayists continue to splice and refurbish existing work. 12

Substantive & Stylistic Elements

The organizing principle of the audio-visual film essay revolves around the creation and execution of a thesis relating to film theory. Because the audio-visual film essay’s social function is to generate insight, the essayist has to analyze film elements in a way that effectively supports the thesis and its societal insight.

Whether it be the thematic intentions of the director throughout various films or paying heed to certain elements of style in one film, all audio-visual film essays seek to prove an argument about an element(s) of film. Reflecting the social function of the video essay, the theses of audio-visual film essays reflect something about society with its message rooted in a philosophical, political, theoretical, or sociological perspective and conclusion while studying the film’s theory. In its purest form, the thesis is what expands and gives further perspective to the film’s intentions. 

The substantive element audio-visual film essayists rely on while arguing their thesis is strategically refurbishing and splicing pre-existing media related to the topic. While the nature and execution of the media chosen may differ from video to video primarily based on either its omission or use of textual commentary, all media is chosen to further the creator’s argument.

The most commonly known form of video essays, that being those using textual commentary in the form of a voiceover, strategically complement the voiceover with curated clips to further the thesis. The execution and nature of the clips chosen depend on what best responds to the rhetorical situation depending on the video’s thesis. In Nerdwriter1’s The Prestige: Hiding In Plain Sight (2016), the creator uses eccentric-looking scenes of the film to illustrate the point about dynamic visuals that speaks to the thesis’ insight; that humans want to be surprised.13 However, the voiceover is not always simultaneously playing over the chosen clips. In StudioBinder’s Christopher Nolan Directing — A Video Essay on Nolan and Time (2021), the creator includes a video clip of Nolan in an interview, strengthening the creator’s point about how Nolan wants the viewer to consider the pressures of time. 14 The clip chosen may stand alone, but it still serves as evidence that the creator’s thesis is legitimate.

Screengrab from StudioBinder’s Christopher Nolan Directing — A Video Essay on Nolan and Time (2021) on Youtube

As mentioned, not all audio-visual film essays employ textual commentary. Adrian Martin and Cristina López’s audio-visual film essay The Melville Variations relies solely on refurbished clips to argue their thesis that places focus on the consistent set of props used throughout Jean-Pierre Melville films. 15 Without the verbal expression of the thesis, the strategic placement of clips results in sequences that allow the audience to deduce the topic. The creators prove something by providing inarguable evidence (the chosen clips) but leave it up to the audience to think more deeply. Regardless of the form, all audio-visual film essays edit and splice together pre-existing clips to strengthen their thesis arguments.

Within the substantive element of providing related clips exists the stylistic element of doing so in a “b-roll” manner, borrowing from the discipline being analyzed in every audio-visual film essay. While b-roll in its true definition refers to the footage shot by secondary camera crews, its goal and usage, as explained by the MasterClass staff in 2021, is to “create dramatic tension, further illustrate a point, and keep the audience engaged by providing variation.” 16 B-roll footage in film frequently appear as montages or cutaways. 17 In the case of audio-visual film essays, the clips move quickly and illustrate the essayist’s point. In Like Stories of Old’s Chernobyl – How The World Became A Risk Society (2019), the creators show nine different clips that all illustrate the broader point within that beat over the span of 45 seconds. 18 However, the level of overt voiceover-to-visual relation differs from video to video. In The Take’s American Psycho Ending Explained: What Really Happened? (2016) the creators use a three-second clip of the main character’s crazed face covered in blood when commenting on his psychosis–without the need to explain how the main character is experiencing psychosis. 19 In this case, the b-roll footage is word-by-word related to the voiceover for that section, whereas in the Chernobyl video essay, it relates to the broader themes and adds a low-vibration dramatic tone. Regardless of its nature, all audio-visual film essays utilize the b-roll footage style in order to keep the audience engaged and strengthen their thesis. 

Screengrab from The Take’s American Psycho Ending Explained: What Really Happened? (2016) on Youtube

The organizing principle of effectively arguing a thesis through the curation and editing of preexisting audio-visual clips upholds the social function of audio-visual film essays–to generate further insight about various dimensions of society through film analysis. 

References

  1. MasterClass staff (26 August 2021). Learn About B-Roll Footage: Definition, and How to Use It in Video Production. MasterClass. 
  2. Orthwein, Jake (20 August 2017). The Age of the Video Essay. Film School Rejects.
  3. Vassilieva, Julia (8 March 2016). Explainer: the exciting new genre of the audio-visual film essay. The Conversation
  4. Willis, Holly. Rose Hobart. Library of Congress National Film Preservation Board
  5. López, Cristina Álvarez & Adrian Martin (3 December 2014). Introduction to the audiovisual essay: A child of two mothers. Necsus.
  6. Vassilieva, Julia (8 March 2016). Explainer: the exciting new genre of the audio-visual film essay. The Conversation
  7. Bresland, John (2010). On the Origin of the Video Essay. Blackbird Archive.
  8. Vassilieva, Julia (8 March 2016). Explainer: the exciting new genre of the audio-visual film essay. The Conversation
  9. Bresland, John (2010). On the Origin of the Video Essay. Blackbird Archive.
  10. López, Cristina Álvarez & Adrian Martin (3 December 2014). Introduction to the audiovisual essay: A child of two mothers. Necsus.
  11. Vassilieva, Julia (8 March 2016). Explainer: the exciting new genre of the audio-visual film essay. The Conversation
  12. Bresland, John (2010). On the Origin of the Video Essay. Blackbird Archive.
  13. Nerdwriter1 (2016). The Prestige: Hiding In Plain Sight. Youtube.
  14. StudioBinder (2021). Christopher Nolan Directing — A Video Essay on Nolan and Time. Youtube.
  15. Vassilieva, Julia (8 March 2016). Explainer: the exciting new genre of the audio-visual film essay. The Conversation
  16. MasterClass staff (26 August 2021). Learn About B-Roll Footage: Definition, and How to Use It in Video Production. MasterClass.
  17. MasterClass staff (26 August 2021). Learn About B-Roll Footage: Definition, and How to Use It in Video Production. MasterClass.
  18. Like Stories of Old (2019). Chernobyl – How The World Became A Risk Society. Youtube.
  19. The Take (2016). American Psycho Ending Explained: What Really Happened?. Youtube.

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